If this claim turns out to be true, it’ll mark the first time a presidential candidate has been held hostage by information.
A hacker group has just posted a notice to Pastebin that claims they’ve obtained Mitt Romney’s pre-2010 tax returns, and is demanding $1M in Bitcoins to destroy them, or else they’ll make them public on September 28.
Mashable notes the group describes an apparently undetected information heist from the PricewaterhouseCooper office in Franklin, TN, where they say they gained access through an employee on the third floor. “During the night, suite 260 was entered, and all available 1040 tax forms for Romney were copied.”
The group says it has sent encrypted flash drives with the tax returns to the Democratic Committee office in the county, and that it will do the same to the GOP office and to “all major news media outlets.”
If PricewaterhouseCooper fails to pay the ransom, the group says it will release public keys to decrypt the flash drives on September 28, and Romney’s tax returns will be made available everywhere. But that’s not all: the group has created a second Bitcoin account for those who want Romney’s returns to be released immediately. They say they will release or destroy the tax returns immediately based on whichever account receives $1 million first.
This puts the Romney campaign in an insanely tricky position: Either PricewaterhouseCooper pays the ransom, and the hackers will have reduced the Romney campaign to negotiating with information terrorists (and you know these guys will release proof of payment) or they have to wait it out and hope the group is bluffing.
“Whoever is the winner does not matter to us,” the group says.
At the bottom of the note, they also seem to provide some encoded information meant to tell PricewaterhouseCooper that they’re not bluffing:
Reference to avoid Fakes that only you will have.
1.all these considerations did not deter me from the path of duty
2.he moment I understood the will of my Heavenly Father
Based on the success of hackers over the past year, I’m guessing these guys are not bluffing.
September 05, 2012 at 8:29 pm, Joshua Garcia said:
Why not just release them? Profit over purpose.
September 05, 2012 at 8:51 pm, Doug Sawyer said:
it does not matter….hackers have their own price and if Romney is shown to be a felon who was pardoned by the IRS it will automatically disqualify him …Romney camp better do the right thing and start getting transparent now
September 05, 2012 at 9:24 pm, Beau Newcomb said:
Maybe I'be been living under a rock, but… who has accused Romney of being a felon?
September 05, 2012 at 9:30 pm, Doug Sawyer said:
it is a cost benefit assumption based on some mitigating factors …Romney has been taking political heat for not releasing his tax returns,but hold hard on his position that he wont…even at the knowledge his own father spoke out on the same issue…the tax issue was given here
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikakelton/2012/08/20/the-bane-of-romneys-investments-whistleblowers/ …it would be an absolute death blow to Romney as a candidate…it would show up in his tax records if he got amnesty ….it can be the only reason he wont show them
September 05, 2012 at 9:33 pm, Beau Newcomb said:
I would think this would have been vetted from the top at the beginning and he would have been disqualified in the beginning, no? I would think if he's found to have been given amnesty, there would be more charges up the line for letting him pass.
So release them, and uncover the corruption, or just vote in Ron Paul and they'll all be fired anyway.
September 05, 2012 at 9:35 pm, Doug Sawyer said:
McCain vetted it and went the other way
September 05, 2012 at 9:37 pm, Doug Sawyer said:
Beau Newcomb plus I'm a Dem…I gotta say I feel for you about how the Republicans shit all over Paul and his supports at the RNC…never seen that crap in my life
September 06, 2012 at 11:38 am, Shayla Hawkins said:
NO there are two other reason that bear looking into.
1st he's reported and wifey has agreed that they've tithed and given millions to their church (this will show up as a truth or a lie) on his taxforms.
2nd he's exspounded on the evils of abortion and claims (at least gives lip service to) Pro-Lifers. Has helped to create a law (bill) to stop ALL abortions (including in cases of rape and/or incest. Further he'd let a woman die rather than have a life saving procedure). OK so we know where he stands…. NOT!!!!
The reason we really don't know is this. A company by the name of Streicycle.
http://www.motherjones.com/2012/07/romney-bain-abortion-streicycle-sec
You see Romney/Bain purchased 75 million dollars worth of their stocks. Streicycle is a bio-hazardous multi-billion dollar business. They pick up hazardous waste. Now this is the interesting part. 20% of their income is generated by their hospital pick ups, however the bulk of their revenues 80% are generated from the real money making side of the business. That being the 400,000+ fetal remains that are picked up for desposal on a yearly basis. There are some 700+ abortion clinic' located around the USA. While he gives lip service to Pro-Life, he is raking in millions from the very thing he's told you that he finds inexcuseable and wrong.
He is a sad example of a decent man, as he's morally bankrupt and a hypocrite of the first degree.
Those taxforms will show either he's making millions from the desposal of fetal remains OR they'll show he's made millions on the sale of those stocks. Either way he's going to be shown for the liar and cheat he is. WAKE UP do you really want such a man in the White House or in control of anything???? I mean I wouldn't offer him the job of dog catcher and I'm truly afraid of his parrot talking Stepford Wife. The one that address us and YOU PEOPLE!!!!
September 05, 2012 at 9:28 pm, DREGstudios! Art & Design said:
Romney is a rich pariah who simply can’t identify with ANY average American through his fog of lies and network of havened money. He’ll only continue to get booed out of the room by every group of minority and middle class voters he comes across. His religion and wealth is highly elitist and everyone in this country has had it with his kind. We’re telling Mitt he can’t buy this election! Read about the role of his money and his Magic Mormon Underwear are playing in the polls at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/05/mitt-romneys-magic-mormon-underwear.html.
September 05, 2012 at 10:50 pm, Tom Anderson said:
THIS IS AMAZING!
September 06, 2012 at 5:02 pm, Daffodil Cee said:
It's probably a hoax, but who knows…Let them prove it by releasing those taxes. That should settle all questions.
September 07, 2012 at 4:25 am, Church State said:
It is no big secret Utah Senator Orin Hatch and other LDS faithful lawmakers seem to have convinced the US Government that only LDS/Mormon return missionaries are capable of reading, writing and speaking a foreign language. Yet when they return these missionaries test at only an intermediate level of fluency – thus federally funded statewide elementary school level mulitple languages immersion programs were established (in what appear to be predominately LDS neighborhood schools. These children are expected to have advanced level foreign language fluency upon graduation for high school). Mormon return missionaries (60,000 serving worldwide) have been recruited by the CIA and FBI for decades. It is quite interesting how most international abductions, assaults, and deaths of Americans abroad go unsolved for months if not years, but when a LDS/Mormon church member is kidnapped (Russia & England), killed (China), or assaulted (worldwide) the crime is solved by either the FBI/CIA in 7-14 days or less. My bets are on Romney's hijacked tax returns mystery being resolved and the culprits arrested in less than 7 days.
September 10, 2012 at 11:07 pm, George Solomon said:
solomonosez…Very interesting…
September 10, 2012 at 11:08 pm, George Solomon said:
…October surprise,anyone???
September 11, 2012 at 5:29 am, JoAnn Conrad said:
obama 2012
September 14, 2012 at 5:59 am, Dustin Barnett said:
This is win-win for these guys. If Romney's camp actually falls for this, million bucks. If nothing else they'll at least get SOME cash from random dumbassess (sp?) that are paying for the public release (or if Obama's camp is dumb enough to fall for it). I HOPE this is all true… but come on… seriously? If People will pay MILLIONS for pictures of celebrities' babies… why wouldn't The New York Times pay the million for the exclusive of the century? Not to mention ALL of this free advertising (refer to above ^^^^^) Wish I thought of this shit….
September 27, 2012 at 12:31 pm, George W. Bush will give a keynote speech on investing in the Cayman Islands right before the election | Death and Taxes said:
[...] stolen his earlier records weren’t bluffing and haven’t been paid a ransom, they may release even more of Romney’s returns tomorrow.Accidental or not, somehow the messaging around Mitt’s millions seem to be the most [...]
September 27, 2012 at 3:35 pm, Will hackers release Mitt Romney’s tax records tomorrow? | Death and Taxes said:
[...] tomorrow? By Alex Moore 1 min agoIn case you’ve forgotten, the date the hackers who allegedly stole Mitt Romney’s tax records gave to release them to the public unless they received a million-dollar ransom is coming up [...]
September 27, 2012 at 5:55 pm, Will hackers release Mitt Romney’s tax records tomorrow? | Exploit Archive said:
[...] case you’ve forgotten, the date the hackers who allegedly stole Mitt Romney’s tax records gave to release them to the public unless they received a million-dollar ransom is coming up [...]